My Sanctuary, My Home
by Sanura Bey
Summary: Many years ago I gave my blood to a group of five scientists and my heart fell for one of them. Today I work with Helen Magnus to help all abnormals find a safe place to stay. They are my family and friends. And I will protect them from anything and anyone, even the one I love, but will I have to?
1. Sanctuary For All

I was a man follow the kid Ashley and I had been sent to collect by Helen. We followed them and nearly hit the mas we had followed.

"Whoa, hey!" He called out to us. We stopped at the end of the alley and looked back at him for a moment before speeding down another ally. We followed the kid until he hid behind a dumpster. We got off our bikes and I took off my helmet shaking my red hair down my back. I scanned the area with my red eyes and went to the dumpster but the kid was gone. I went back and grabbed my black duster and followed Ashley to follow the kid on foot. When it started raining Ashley and I grabbed an umbrella from a store and opened it, still following watching the kid like a hawk; and as the rain stopped we folded the umbrella we had been carrying. He ran into the subway out of sight and we followed. I pulled my pistol and made sure the safety was on. as it got darker Ashley and I pulled out flashlights and looked around for the boy. A train was coming up so we pushed up against the wall to avoid it. We waited until it was gone the continued down the tracks. When the tunnel started getting lighter we saw two cops walking along the tunnel.

"Damn sector gives me the willies, man." The skinnier ones said. We snuck closer to them.

"No one likes working under old city. Place is toxic."

"Rent's cheap, though. Hold it." They flashed their light on the kid on top of a box

"What the hell you doing down here, kid? Look, wherever you ran from, this place is worse, okay? So let's go." the kid shook his head quickly. "That wasn't a request, kid."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ashley told them as we stood behind them. As they turned to us, she kicked the first officer and I hit the second one. In the end, both men were knocked unconscious and when we turned back to the boy, he was gone.

"Peachy. Come on Liz." She said pulling out her pistol once more. Once we found the boy, I sent a text to Helen and we waited. I watched her enter the area we were in with another man.

"What I still don't understand is, who tipped you off that the boy was down here?" He said.

"I did." I said as Ashley and I came up behind them.

"We've been tracking the little dweeb all night." She told them.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked us.

"Who the hell are you?" Ashley asked him.

"You said you had him." Helen said breaking up their little conversation.

"We did, until the circus arrived." I told her pointing back the way they came.

"Still, roughing up two policemen." She gave both of us a look.

"They were going to get themselves killed." Ashley defended.

"They didn't know who they were dealing with, Helen. We made a quick decision." I told her.

"Uh, guys?" The we turned to the man and pulled out our guns and followed him to the crate the boy was hiding in. The man stood in front of the crate talking to him.

"It's okay." he told him, trying to calm him down. A snake-like thing attacked him and Ashley tackled him down to protect him. They tolled a little and she immediately came back up and took aim at the boy.

"Don't! We need him alive!" Helen told her. Helen and I walked in front of the crate. "We want to help you." she told him, lowering her gun. I stood next to her as Ashley came to her other side, both guns still drawn. "Do you understand me? We're not going to hurt you, I promise." The boy came out of the crate and stood before us. The snake-like, as we saw now, appendage was waving about dangerously. "That's it." the appendage stoke out and bite Ashley in the shoulder.

"Hey, hey, hey! Over here. Over here... yeah, that's it." the man said drawing his attention away from us. "That's it... nice and easy." he glanced at us. "Any time..." I shot the boy with a tranquilizer dart and he collapsed. "You okay?" the man asked Ashley.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She told him.

"This chaos was completely avoidable." Helen told us.

"These tunnels reek and I need a bath. I don't need a lecture." Ashley told her.

"Here here." I agreed.

"Seriously, who are you?" the man asked us.

"Dr. Zimmerman, this is Ashley, my daughter, and Elizabeth, an elemental." Helen introduced us.

* * *

"Ugh. I get it, alright?" Ashley asked in the med room as her mom stitched her up. Dr. Zimmerman was holding an ice pack to his head and I was just sitting in the room, watching. "Ow! Mom, take it easy."

"All I'm saying is that we could have better coordinated our efforts." Helen told us.

"Again, we got the ghoul, okay? Take a pill." Ashley told her.

"She has a point, Helen. The boy is safe here and we're all alive." I reminded her. She gave me a look and I rolled my eyes.

"I apologize for Ashley and Elizabeth's unruly behavior, Dr. Zimmerman. What they lack in refinement, I assure you they make up for in their field skills."

"May I remind you, Helen. I'm older than all of you put together by many years." Dr. Zimmerman gave me a look.

"Really?" he asked looking at me but Ashley thought he was asking about her skills.

"Somebody saved your life tonight." she gasped in mock surprise. "Oh, wait! That was me."

"Hold still." Helen told her.

"So I take it you guys, uh, do this a lot?" Dr. Zimmerman asked, looking at all of us.

"Oh, this is nothing. Hey, Mom, do you remember the summer I turned 18? We do an entire den of werewolves. You know, as in bag and capture? Sedate and catalog? It wasn't just me, Mom was there, too, and a few nervous locals, one who seriously looked like Adrian Brody." I laughed at her comment.

"Ashley..." Helen warned her.

"Mom, you thought he was hot too." she said looking back at her slightly.

"I'd listen to the lady with the needle if I were you." I told her.

"Dr. Zimmerman is our guest. Please bear that in mind as you two blather away." Helen said, continuing her work.

"Anyway, we were low on silver tips, full moon's on the rise-"

"You're making this up." Dr. Zimmerman interrupted her.

"You got the tour, right?" I asked looking between Helen and the doctor.

"Yeah, but..."

"There we are, darling, good as new." Helen said interrupting Dr. Zimmerman.

"Thank you. Hate to bleed and run, but I got to be on the eastside in twenty." Ashley said jumping up and grabbing her jacket.

"For what reason?" Helen asked.

"Sylvio has some fabulous new product for me. Top of the line Kevlar, prototype hollow-points, digital fuses..." The list went on.

"Actually, I'd prefer it if you stayed in this evening." Helen said. I gave her a questioning look, normally she wouldn't have minded.

"What do you mean? Why?" Ashley asked her, not understanding the reason.

"There's been some fluctuations in the EM shield. I'm sure it's nothing, but just to be on the safe side." I gave her a look, there was no reason the shield should have been fluctuating.

"But this won't take an hour, and I promise I'll grind him down on the price. We buy in bulk, we save a ton." Ashley tried to convince her.

"We're Sylvio's best customers. His amazing deals aren't going anywhere, believe me. It's been a long night, Ashley please." Helen begged.

"Mom, come on! I'm just..." Helen gave Ashley a look. "Okay, Facebook it is." She turned to our guest. "Nice to meet you, uh, keep the ice going." with that said Ashley left.

"So she's your daughter? What, did you have her when you were, like, 12?" He asked Helen sarcastically.

"Very flattering." Helen looked down and smiled slightly before looking back at him.

"Adopted?" He tried again.

"The details are unimportant. Ashley is my flesh and blood, and she plays a vital role in my work." Helen told him

"She bags 'em, you tag 'em." He suggested.

"Something like that, but I find it's what happens afterwards that matters the most." I followed them out of the room.

* * *

The boy was strapped to a chair, but the appendage was still waving about trying to reach us as we observed from above.

"What is that?" Will asked Helen.

"Massive genetic mutation creating a symbiotic appendage." She told him.

"Well, whatever it is, it helped him clear twenty feet across an alley earlier tonight." He said looking at us.

"Probably its most benign use. Such imperfect children are often adopted by well-meaning immigrant families. Some are blind. Others have deformities, mental illness. I'm sure he seemed perfectly normal in his photograph, if they even saw one." I told them looking down.

"What do you intend to do with him?" Dr. Zimmerman asked, looking intently at us.

"I'll determine his physiological treatment, but we have no hope of truly helping him until we gain his trust." Helen told him as we both looked at him.

"Wait... is this why... No. There's nothing in my training that even begins to apply to a patient like this." he said trying to convince us.

"Your training can't help you here as much as your intuition can." I told him.

"Th-this is insane. I can't do this." He said, trying to convince us. Helen had told me about him after she had saved him.

"What's more terrifying to you, Dr. Zimmerman? That frightened, confused boy down there or the possibility that you lack the courage to help him? Tell me, what do you see when you look at him?" I asked him.

"Body language is... agitated, though he's given us no trouble since he woke up. In fact, the only hostile thing in that room is that... thing." He said looking at the appendage. Then back up at us.

"Then see beyond it. See the boy. If you can do that, then you can help him. If not, then so be it. I'll simply admit that I was wrong about you." Helen told him. He looked back down at the boy. "I'll leave it to you." He gave us an irritate but acquiescing look then left. We watched Dr. Zimmerman and the Big Guy enter the room below us.

"Release him. Please. Trust me." Dr. Zimmerman looked at the Big Guy as he used a remote to release the straps holding the boy to the chair. The boy stood up and the Big Guy put an arm out to stop Dr. Zimmerman from going closer.

"It's okay. It's okay." He looked from The Big Guy to the boy. "How you doing? You want to sit down?" the boy just watched him. Henry entered the observation room where Helen and I are still watching Will, the Big Guy and boy in the room below.

"Kind of harsh for a job interview, don't ya think?" Henry asked her.

"Thank you for your opinion, Henry." Helen said still looking down at the room.

"I'm just saying it's a newbie all alone with the new arrival-"

"Whom he helped capture." Helen said cutting him off.

"Yeah, sure, he might pull it off. You know, even a blind squirrel can find a nut. Or is it monkeys and bananas? I can never remember." Henry said going on.

"Do you have what I asked for?" She asked him, ignoring his statement.

"Yeah. The analysis of the goop you took from the cops' frontal lobes? Check." He handed her a computer tablet that he had been carrying. I looked over her should to see a globe. Helen touched a control and the image began tracking and zooming in. "Not many places you're going to find radiation traces that pure, mostly former soviet republics. But if you match up the mineral traces in the plutonium sample to known mining operations in each possible location..." the image on the computer finished zooming in and showed the result of his search.

"Chernobyl." Helen said, looking at the image. I looked back at the boy.

"Only city in the world with more personal Geiger Counters than clocks." Henry said, taking the computer back from her.

"Many of the survivors of this disaster moved on and had children." She told him looking down as Dr. Zimmerman made progress with the boy.

"Yeah, if you can call them that." Henry leaned over the rail slightly to look at the boy.

"Your sensitivity is breathtaking." Helen said irritably.

"The kid sucks brains! Not that I'm being judgmental." Henry said trying to defend himself.

"Is there anything else?" Helen asked, trying to get him to leave politely.

"Ah no, not really. A working girl was found murdered behind a warehouse down near circle square about four hours ago." Henry told us.

"Murdered how?" I asked him.

"Just your typical old school stabbing; no one saw anything, cops are clueless, as usual." Henry said shrugging his shoulders.

"Send me what you have." Helen told him, jumping to the same conclusion I did.

"Really, we care about this? I mean, it's very sad, but-"

"Send it to me." Helen ordered, interrupting him.

"Okay, fine. All right, I'll transfer the CCTV footage from that part of town to the central network, which, by the way, is still fluxing like a bitch. Did you get the request I sent for those upgrades?" Henry asked her.

"We'll talk about it." Helen told him.

"Okay, fine. By the way, if there's a cleanup on aisle 2, I don't want to know about it." Henry told us, leaving the area. Down below us Dr. Zimmerman was holding a chair in front of himself and the snake-like appendage was striking the chair while trying to get him.

"Whoa, woah, hey! Woah, woah! Time out a second! Time out! Time out, everyone just calm down." The appendage withdrew slightly, still waving in the air. Dr. Zimmerman lowered the chair but he didn't set it down completely. "You think that's supposed to scare me, huh? Well, let me tell you something, you see this guy here? He scares me a hell of a lot more than you do." He turned to the Big Guy, "No offence." He turned back to the boy. "All right, let's just calm down, all right?" He looked back to the Big Guy. "Will you give us some space here?" The Big Guy moved back and stood in the doorway. "It's okay. It's okay... just relax..." The appendage wrapped itself around the child's torso and the child seemed calmer now. I smiled at the result of this test. "Okay, how come you're not trying to eat my brain anymore? I think I'm getting the hang of things here. The less I'm scared of you, the less you want to snack on my cerebellum? Okay... I'm just going to put this down." He put the chair down on the ground in front of him. "Do you have a name?"

"Alexei." the boy answered.

"My name's Will." Will moved around to sit in the chair. "You want to tell me how this all started?" He asked.

"I lived in Kiev with parents. They told me I was not safe, that if people found out about me, I would be taken away. Family adopt me, bring me here, but they not like me. Not after..." The boy fell silent and looked down at the appendage.

"Wasn't the kind of reception you were hoping for, huh?" Will asked him.

"They were afraid. I tried to stop it, but only more fear comes." Alexei told him.

"So the more fear, the more it comes out?" Alexei nodded at him.

"And you can't control it. It's a defense mechanism... with a mind of its own." Will concluded.

"It is not my fault. I not want to kill." Alexei told him.

"No, you just want to be safe. Listen to me, Alexei. Feeling safe is something we all need. That is nothing to be ashamed of. All right you're no different than anybody else." Will explained to him.

"You don't fear me?" Alexei asked him.

"No." Will told him.

"Magnificent." Helen said smiling slightly.

"You were right about him, he is good." I told her.

* * *

Later that night, I was waiting for Helen in her office when she rushed in and went directly to the computer with Ashley following.

"Mom, why are you freaking out?" Ashley asked her.

"Grab what weapons you can. We'll need them." Helen told us.

"Helen what is it?" I asked, making sure my pistol was fully loaded.

"No, not until you tell me why this ghoul is such a problem." Ashley told her.

"Because he'll kill us both! He allowed himself to be captured by you, I'm certain of it. We may only have moments before-" We all turned toward a sound of someone teleporting into the room. Helen and I raised our guns and pointing them at that person. My eyes widened at the tall, bald man I saw.

"Bloody hell!"

"Hello Helen, Elizabeth." Druitt greeted.

"John..." Helen whispered while I stayed silent.

"Wonderful to see you both again." He told us.

"You know this ghoul?" Ashley asked us as Druitt began walked slowly toward us.

"Oh...they and I go way back." Druitt told her. In an orange flash of light and Druitt disappeared. He reappeared behind Ashley and twisted her arm up behind her back, using her as a shield between himself and the two of us.

"John, don't! This is about you and me, not her." Helen tried convincing him.

"For the moment. You have no idea what it's been like... alone, wandering this godforsaken world, wanting only peace. A fragment of what we had. What I lost..." He leaned his head closer to Ashley's.

"You have nothing to gain by harming her. Or us." I told him.

"Mom, Liz, shoot him!" Ashley told us.

"Shall we drop the pretense? You know exactly why I've come and what I want. It's all within reach, everything I've ever wanted. And you're going to give it to me, or she will die." He told us.

"Mom!" They disappeared and Helen ran to the computer and started scanning the security screens.

"Helen, you have to calm down. He won't hurt her." I told her.

"You don't know that! Oh, bloody hell..." she said searching, more frantic now to find them.

"Ah, I knew him well." We turned and aimed our guns at him. He was holding a small skull.

"Where is she?" Helen questioned him. Druitt continued to ponder the skull. "Where is she?!" Druitt put the skull down and covered it with the glass dust cover that had been protecting it and started to wander the room.

"I'd tell you she was safe, but I'd be lying. No, your scruffy little helper mentioned something about where the worst of the worst are kept." He smirked at us.

"You bastard."

"Oh, no doubt she helped capture whatever is in there and they can reminisce."

"Threatening her-"

"Is my only option, Helen. I can hardly threaten you. Using one of your own precious creatures as the blunt instrument... Some of my best work, I think." he said interrupting me. Helen started to run out of the room.

"I'll get there first." Helen stopped and stared at him with wide eyes. "And just put her someplace more dangerous." Helen slowly backed towards me once more. "I don't want her to die, Helen, but that is exactly what will happen if you test my resolve."

"There's only one reason you would have taken this risk, to risk her. Because you have to. You're dying, aren't you?" I asked him.

"We're all dying. It simply comes down to survival, and I intend to do whatever is necessary to ensure mine." He told me.

"Even if it means killing her?" I asked once more, he knew the truth about Ashley.

"Her life is in Helen's hands. I don't think the two of you want to lose her over something as easily accessible as Helen's blood." He said walking over to stand close her her, smiling softly.

"You saved my life once before. You can do it again." he reminded her.

"I can help you, John, and not by prolonging this nightmare. We can find a cure." Helen tried convincing him as she tried all those years ago.

"She clearly doesn't know." he said ignoring her attempt.

"How could I possibly tell her?" Helen asked him.

"She must have asked how she came by her killer instincts." He smirked once more at us.

"She thinks her father's dead." I told him. He swallowed hard in anger and glared at us.

"I wonder how she'd feel to learn the truth." Druitt threatened us once more.

"Your mind is poisoned, John, through no fault of your own." Helen told him.

"Helen Magnus and Elizabeth, friends to nature's abominations and enemies of common sense! Your blood, Helen!" He yelled at us. Dritt looked over our shoulders at the security monitor. "Oh, time is growing short." Helen and I turned to the screen to see Ashley in the SHOE. Helen walked to the monitor and computer and typed something in. She then took out a small wooden box and opened it. There were vials of her blood inside it and she filled a syringe with the blood and handed the syringe to Druitt.

"How can I be sure?" He asked us.

"It's mine. Centrifuged, pure." Helen told him. He glanced at me.

"I watched her out it in there myself." I told him. Druitt injected the blood into his arm.

"Thank you, Helen. You won't regret it." He told us smirking.

"I'm sorry I can't say the same for you." she told him. Druitt began to look ill and he started flashing. He glared at us once more.

"Forgive me, John." She asked of him.

"The Six, the others...will come." Druitt said, pain filling his voice. He then disappeared and Helen and I ran out of the room to help Ashley.

* * *

When we got there, we opened the cell door and Helen, Henry and I rushed in.

"Stay in the light!" Will told us. I pointed my gun at the creature that was closest to us while Helen ran to aid Will and Ashley and Henry ran to the Big Guy.

"I've got her, I've got her." Helen told us. Helen took Ashley and Will helped Henry with the Big Guy. We all exited the cell and as I left I pressed the controls to close the cell door. We had both Ashley and the Big Guy on gurneys.

"Dude, are you nuts?" Henry asked Will.

"It's a distinct possibility." Will told him. We all walked/limped away from the cell pushing a gurney.


	2. Fata Morgana

On the latest mission Helen, Ashley and Will went on they brought back three women from a crypt. We had out them on some beds in the infirmary with Helen and I tending to them everyday.

"Three not-so-dead women found in coffins. Just another day at the office." Will commented on our guests.

"All three are comatose. Fortunately, brain functions and vital organs seem to be intact." Helen told him.

"So they're normal?" He asked us.

"As fat as we I can tell. The scans aren't detecting any physical anomalies, but they can only tell us so much. we're administering a time-released stimulant. It should bring them back to consciousness slowly, with as little physical trauma as possible." I told him.

"What about emotional trauma?" He asked.

"That's more your department, I should think. Until they wake up, we have to rely on more traditional forensic methods. Now, this fella..." Helen moved to a bed with one of the keepers of the dead on it.

"Fond memories." Will stated looking at it.

"These creatures detected our presence early and possessed unnatural speed and strength." Helen stated ignoring him.

"Definitely not normal." Will commented.

"Well, he is an abnormal." I reminded him. "He wasn't normal. Not as you would define it. Helen and I were about to gather some fluid samples. Care to assist?" I asked smiling at him.

"Ah...I'd love to, but...I'd better get back to my office and get the whole head-shrinking operation up and running." He told us.

"As you wish." I said as he walked out.

"After we collect the samples I want to do an autopsy on this creature." She told me, starting to get her samples.

"Alright." I told her taking off my gloves from one of the girls and moving to the next one.

* * *

We had started on the autopsy when Will walked in during Helen's dictation.

"These creatures exhibit a terrifying propensity for violence. Physiology appears human in base form, though significant anomalies to the face and torso indicate the possibility of mutation at a base genetic level." She said in her recorder.

"Okay, you need to...you need to put a sock on the door or something before you do that." Will told us.

"He's breathtaking, isn't he?" Helen asked us.

"He's amazing." I told her.

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Will told us.

"How are our guests doing?" I asked him.

"Confused. At least the one who's awake is. She mentioned a disease that was killing people in her village, called the "miasmas"? Which translates from the greek meaning "poisoned air"." He told us.

"Plague, actually." I told him.

"The bubonic plague, specifically however, the last reported serious outbreak was in Scotland in... 800 AD." He told us.

"Meaning?" Helen asked.

"She's crazy." He told us, flat out.

"Is that your professional opinion?" She asked him again.

"Look I know there's a lot of things that are outside the realm of our knowledge, blah, blah, blah, but logically, if she were from 800 AD,  
she wouldn't speak English the way we do. I'm guessing that linguistics and grammar have evolved somewhat since then." He told us.

"My little brother would say "de-evolved"." I told him.

"You have a younger brother?" he asked me.

"I do have family outside of the Sanctuary, Will." I gave him a small look.

"Whatever. The point is that we wouldn't understand her. Which makes her a very sweet, very delusional woman." Will explained.

"Possibly." I told him.

"If you have a theory, please, share it with the class." He told me sarcastically.

"The liquid you found the three of them in bears similar chemical properties to suspended animation formula used by southern voodoo cults." I told him.

"The human body cannot survive intact for 1,200 years; I don't care what kind of magic bath products you use." He told me.

"And I agree. So...these women are either far more than they appear, or...to use your incredibly clever vernacular..."

"Crazy." He finished for me.

"The question we should be asking is why the Keepers were so anxious to stop us from getting into that crypt. What is it about these women that they don't want us to know?" Helen asked looking at us.

* * *

In the lab Helen and I were working on the keeper as Big Foot entered with tray.

"Excellent timing. I'm starved." Helen told him.

"They are beautiful." He said admiring the keeper on the table.

"They truly are. In all my years alive, I've never seen anything like them." I told them admiring the creature on the table.

"They are frightened." I looked up at him and saw him looking at the monitor that showed the women.

"Well, it must be quite confusing, I'd imagine. Waking up here, no memories believing you're from the middle ages." I told him.

"Are they?" the Big Guy asked us.

"Well, there's the rub; I can't quite rule the possibility out. When Will entered the crypt, he said he set off some sort of mechanism that drained the coffins of a green-hued liquid, which, thankfully, I was able to preserve." Helen told us.

"You think this kept them alive?" I asked her.

"I don't know for certain, but it does contain several key elements that could induce a form of cryogenic stasis in humans." Helen told us.

"If they are not abnormals..."

"I know. Why guard them so ferociously?" She finished for him.

* * *

"What do you make of these? I found them on the right-hand index finger of each of the three women." Helen asked later in the med lab. I grabbed on of the rings and looked at the designs.

"Have you searched the database?" The Big Guy asked her.

"Not yet. It's on my "to do" list. But such distinctive markings generally indicate a connection to a larger collective or group." She told us.

"If they belong to a society of some sort..." The Big Guy dropped off.

"Then someone will definitely have noticed that they're missing." I told them.

* * *

"That assessment may be far more accurate than you realize." I heard Helen ask that night as I walked by her office that night.

"How do you mean?" I walked into the office to see Will and Helen talking.

"Have you ever heard of the Morrigan?" She asked him.

"The Morrigan? No, but, then again, I haven't been able to memorize that monster manual you gave me yet." Will told her.

"They're part of an ancient legend dating back to medieval times; three women with supernatural powers whose sole purpose was to destroy men." I told him making him jump and turn to me.

"Will you not do that?" he asked me.

"Probably not. The Morrigan haven't been seen for nearly 1,200 years." I told them.

"So I see we're back to the 1,200-year-old bath products theory." He told me.

"The Morrigan first appeared during the reign of King Arthur. According to legend, when the Morrigan appeared on the battlefield, Arthur's enemies simply began dropping dead. Their souls drained of life. Entire armies were wiped out in mass." I told them.

"Do you honestly believe that they're witches? From the middle ages?" He asked looking between us.

"What history would have defined as a witch could have simply been someone with abnormal powers." Helen told him.

"Yeah, but they don't have any said so yourself when you two checked them out." Will told us.

"None that we've yet detected. Each of them was wearing one of these." I told him giving him one of the three rings.

"Now, this is the mark of an ancient cabal of collectors who sought and exploited abnormals for their own personal gain and apparently guarded their possessions fiercely." Helen told us.

"So, why would this cabal hold the sisters prisoner if they don't have any powers?" Will asked.

"Another reason why I'm not sleeping." She told him.

* * *

In the cell area Helen and I watched the sister floating. Helen fired a weapon at the sisters and they fell to the ground.

"That's quite enough of that." She told them.

"I had everything under control." Will told us before passing out.

* * *

We were all in the med room watching the girls.

"You know how when stuff blows up and I say "Man this is gonna cost you," and you say, "Henry, stop being so dramatic"?" Henry asked her.

"Henry." She warned.

"This is gonna cost you." He told her.

"What was affected?" I asked him.

"Well, the central lab, mostly. Diagnostics, MRI systems are gonzo and I think our Internet is down." Henry listed.

"What about security protocols?" I asked him.

"Well, redundancies kicked in, so nothing mean and ugly got free, which is good, but our perimeter alarm systems are totally fried, which is bad." I pulled out my gun and made sure it would be ready for anything.

"Focus on external defenses. Leave the lab for later." Helen told him.

"Why, are we expecting more trouble? Yeah, no, that was a stupid question. I'm outside." Henry said leaving.

"Witches from the middle ages, okay, I'm almost there. But assuming their physical forms could somehow be preserved...again, how is it possible that they can speak like us?" Will asked.

"I'm assuming that each of them is a teleaesthetic, enabling them to quickly learn our vernacular of English." Helen told him, making sure he was okay.

"Psychic powers, mind reading, well, now we know what this cabal wanted them for." I told them.

"Yeah, for all the good it's done us. Hold still." She told will.

"Hey, you didn't know what they could do." Will told her, trying to make her fell better.

"I should have, the moment I connected them with the cabal. Performed more invasive scans, psychotropic drug therapy..." She listed all the tests off.

"You're running a medical facility, not Guantanamo Bay, cut yourself some slack." I told her.

"You don't understand; assuming the cabal are after them, and we'd be fools not to, the amount of kinetic energy that they released could hardly go unnoticed. We're all in imminent danger. They cannot remain here." Helen told us.

"And what does that mean?" Will asked.

"It means that if the legend of the Morrigan is even slightly true, they could conceivably swipe out hundreds, even thousands of lives, given the chance." I told him.

"We're not talking about a bunch of velociraptors here. Before their memories came back, they were calm, rational women and even when they did let loose with their powers, they didn't kill me. They just...melted my brain a little bit." Will said defending them.

"And destroyed half my facility." Helen told him.

"Well, they've been held prisoner for hundreds of years; they had a right to be pissed. It doesn't mean we can't reason with them." Will told her.

"All three will remain under sedation, at least for the time being." Helen decided.

"How long is that? Forever? How does that make us any different than the cabal who imprisoned them in the first place?" Will asked us.

* * *

Later that day Helen and I were staring out the window in the hallway, talking.

"As long as they're conscious, they are a threat. As long as they're here, they are a threat." Helen told me.

"According to Will, Danu's psychological state is so fragile right now, any more trauma, any more amnesia, she may never be this self-aware again. I think he can get through to her. He just... needs more time." I told her.

"Time is not something we have in abuncance, Elizabeth." She told me.

"Listen to me. You've always listened to me in the past, so listen to me now. She has been brainwashed to think this cabal is all-powerful." Helen's phone ran and she answered it.

"Ashley." a few moments later the keepers attacked. We ran down hallway with the Keepers not far behind.

"Magnus?" Will asked as we ran down the hall. Helen activated the security measures to bring doors down, locking off sections of the Sanctuary.

"That works." I told her.

"What's going on?" Will asked us.

"Keepers attacked us." I told him.

"We need to get the Morrigan out of here immediately." Helen told us.

"Agreed. Any ideas?" He asked us.

"Near the SHU, there's an escape tunnel with an exit leading to the river and a safe house just outside the city. There's a map programmed into this. Take this." She said while I pulled out my gun and checking my pockets for extra ammo.

"What are you gonna do?" He asked us.

"You wanted time? I'm going to buy you some." I told him. I went down the hall and started fighting the keepers. The Big Guy arrived and joined the fight with us.

"Where the hell have you been?" Helen asked him.

"We need weapons." He told us.

"We need Ashley." I told them as we kept fighting, leading them away from Will and the Morrigan.

* * *

"I want you to stay and defend the habitats at all costs. If we fall, initiate level-9 lockdown protocol and seal yourself inside." Helen told the Big Guy. He started to protest but Helen interrupted him. "Please. Do as I say." The Big Guy left to protect the habitats.

"Mom, I'm home!" We heard Ashley tell on on the walkie.

"Good. Grab what weapons you can and meet us in the catacombs. Will's headed to the river gate with the Morrigan; the Keepers are following. We'll make our stand there. Henry?" Helen called in the walkie.

"Hello." We heard Henry call.

"You heard the plan?" She asked him as I kept the Keepers off her.

"Weapons, catacombs, check. I'll see you in five." Then there was radio silence as we all made our way down to the catacombs.

* * *

Later Ashley and Will met us at the catacombs.

"Mom! Liz! Are you okay?" Ashley asked his.

"We're fine. Did you get them out?" She asked Will.

"I think, if they can read Google maps; they should be on their way." Will told us.

"Where the hell is Henry?" I asked looking around.

"Here." Henry entered with a man behind him. We all raised our weapons at the man behind our friend.

"This is a private medical facility. You are trespassing on my property." Helen told him.

"Trespassing? You have stolen what is ours. The Morrigan belong to us. Hand them over now or we tear this place apart." He told us.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She told him.

"My Keepers are keyed to find them, no matter where they go." He told us.

"Your Keepers are dead all over my house. Do you have any more?" Helen told him and he was silent for a few seconds.

"Last chance. No more games." He told us.

"Ashley? Elizabeth?"

"It'll get messy, but just say the word." Ashley told Helen.

"We're beside you all the way." I told her.

"Take their weapons." Before his men could move they were thrown to the ground by an invisible force. Danu, Carid, and Tatha then entered the room.

"Stop. There will be no more killing. We will go quietly. But we ask that you leave these people unharmed." Danu told him.

"You don't make demands. You do as we say." The man told her.

"They did not take us out of greed, but out of charity. We ask you leave them unharmed." Danu told them once more.

"It seems that a taste of freedom has changed their demeanor." I told him.

"We take back what's ours, you and I have no problem." He said, pointing to Helen.

"These women are under my protection; they're not leaving with you or anyone else, for that matter." Helen told him.

"Then we have a problem." He told us.

"Danu, please, stay with us. We can protect all of you." Will pleaded with her.

"If we stay, none of you will ever know peace." Danu told him.

"You have shown us a path, a truth we have never seen before." Carid said with a small smile on her face.

"And we are grateful, for all that you have done." Tatha thanked us.

"No. No, you can't go, not now." Will begged them.

"Our freedom must be earned. In our own way. We know who we are now." Danu told him.

"Put them in separate trucks. I'd be careful what you do next; the people I work for aren't the forgiving type." The man told us.

"Neither am I. Tell them this is far from over. Now, get off my property." Helen demanded. The man left laughing at us. We waited until we were sure he was gone before saying anything.

"You think we've lost them?" Will asked her.

"You tell me." She told him.

"I think I needed more time." He answered her honestly.

"I think you've done more good than you realize. We gave them the choice to be free. What they do next is up to them." I told him.


	3. Folding Men

Helen, Ashley and I were in the library looking over Henry's shoulder at his computer when Will walked in holding a brown bag.

"I did say 9:00, didn't I?" Helen asked us as his footsteps grew closer to us.

"Sorry I'm late. Bagel run, assorted savory, poppy seed for the big guy and two kinds of schmear." He told us and we all gave him a blank stare. "What? Okay, don't tell me that you wanted raisin." He asked us.

"There's an interesting case I'd like you to see. Henry?" Will came towards us and watched the video on the screen.

"Security footage, from a pawnshop robbery last night near the campanile." Helen told him.

"How the heck did you get into the precinct LAN?" Will asked Henry.

"Well, I'd like to take credit for that, but I got the password from the boss." Henry confessed to him. Being the age she was Helen had made a lot of higher up connections and could get almost anything she wanted.

"And you got in? How?" Will asked her.

"Now, where would a girl be without her secrets?" She answered. She wasn't always good at moving the conversation off of the topic she didn't want.

"That's... Not an answer." He told her.

"I know." She told him smiling coyly. "You'll see the owner shift his weight. That's the foot-operated silent alarm." She told him as it happened on the screen.

"Hey…Henry, can you go back for a sec?" Henry did as Will asked him to do. "Yeah, right there. Now, zoom in. Huh…." Will pointed something out to us on the monitor. "Check that out; looks like he's scooping up all of the gold jewelry and leaving everything else, including the diamonds."

"Okay, that's just wrong." Ashley said, watching them.

"Diamonds your best friend now Ash?" I asked her smiling.

"Interesting; fast forward if you would." He fast forwarded it a bit.

"Now, they react to the siren and become frantic. And this gunman fatally shoots the owner in the back." Helen told Will.

"Brutal." Will said watching it happen.

"The two robbers split up, and one is pursued down an alleyway." Helen told us.

"There's the dashboard camera from the cruiser." Henry said bringing it up for us to watch.

"And into a coal chute basement." Helen continued.

"Okay, I'm still not getting why this ends up on our radar." Will told her.

"Just wait." I told him watching the video.

"The officers enter the basement just moments after the gunman did. And once inside, they report that there's absolutely no sign of him." Helen told him, watching him instead of the video.

"So, what, he just... Disappeared?" He asked her.

"According to the police, there was absolutely no way this man could have possibly exited. It's all in the police report." She said handing him a file. "Quite the enigma." Will turned and walked away while studying the file. "Have I taken your mind off bagels?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure, knock yourself out." Will picked up the bag and handed it to us. Henry took it while Helen smiled knowingly at me.

* * *

Later that day we went to the chute room the robber escaped from. Ashley slid down the chute into the room last.

"No tape, no seal." Ashley said looking around.

"Crime lab finished their sweep this morning." Helen told her as we were looking around.

"Concrete floor, no windows..." Will said listing off every thing he couldn't have used to escape.

"This doorway was bricked over decades ago." I told them as I walked over to it.

"And if he didn't leave the way he came in..." Ashley said looking back up the chute.

"Oh, please don't tell me we have another teleporter." He said remembering John.

"Not likely, but I'm not ready to rule anything out quite yet." Helen told him as we continued looking around.

"What about this?" I looked at where his flashlight was pointing at and saw a 10 inch pipe.

"That?" I asked him, making sure I was looking at the right thing as he walked toward it.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, sure if he morphed into a boa constrictor." Ashley told him.

"No, Will's right, if only as a potential place that the robber hid his booty." Helen told her as we bent down to inspect it.

"I never saw a man with that small a booty." Ashley told us as we looked inside it I gave her a look as she and Will shared were amused.

"Did we bring Henry's camera?" I asked them.

"Uh, yeah, we did. It's in the van." Ashley said going off to get it. When Ashley got back we knelt back down to peer into the pipe and Helen placed Henry's camera on wheels in the pipe.

"That's a nice toy." Will said.

"A "toy" like this helped discover several secrets of the great pyramids. All right, go slow." Helen told me as I controlled the camera car. They all turned to look at the monitor that Ashley set up to receive the images.

"Switch on the U.V." Helen instructed.

"U.V. is up." I told her. The device went a little ways before the image of a finger print became clear.

* * *

We all stood in the lab looking at the image the camera recorded for us.

"So how does a fingerprint get that deep into the middle of a 10-inch pipe?" Will asked us.

"Well, it doesn't, unless a person squeezed in that far." Ashley told him.

"Yeah, but you saw the size of that guy." Will reminded her.

"Well, I've seen stranger things." I told him looking around before looking at Henry.

"Okay, seriously, why are you staring at me?" He asked me and I smiled at him.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were looking at a folding man." I told them.

"A folding man?" Will asked.

"Urban legend crops up in city after city, supposedly a man who's capable of collapsing his skeleton to fit through narrow spaces." Ashley clarified for him.

"Although, the legend falls short of a feat like this; but it is possible that we're looking at some sort of super-folder." Helen pointed out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa okay, just... help me out here." Will asked, in his own way, for more clarification.

"You're familiar with a newborn's fontanelles?" I asked him.

"Yeah the soft spot on the top of a baby's head sure." He told me.

"Nature created it so the child could fit through the birth canal." I finished the definition.

"Yeah, but for a newborn the head is the widest part of the anatomy. And, what, you're talking about in an adult….it's impossible." Will told us and I smiled at him.

"Will, look around you. Ten days ago you, would have said all of this was impossible. Henry, could you run the print?" Helen asked Henry.

"I'm on it." He said leaving as I looked back up at the print.

* * *

"These urban myths we're talking about go back a lot further than contemporary sightings." Helen told us as we poured over books in the library.

"But they're all part of what, the same phenomenon?" Will asked us.

"No, no, there's quite a range; flex-people, whole tribes with genetic defects in collagen synthesis. There's a sect of Shinto monks that are said to bow without bending." I told him reading it from a book.

"Then you've got your turn-of-the-century sideshow contortionists...The Human Corkscrew, Henry Athol The Boneless Wonder, and not the least; my personal favorite, Elastic Ed." Ashley said showing us pictures of the carneys.

"But no one's ever been able to fully document these folding men?" Will asked us.

"Well, if they even exist; they must be quite elusive." Helen told him going back to her book.

"You know, there was this case that I worked on at the agency that never got solved but had a very similar set of circumstances." Will told us.

"Austin, Texas, 2005." Helen said never looking up from her book.

"How do you know about Austin?" Will asked her.

"Are you serious? She knows when you switched from boxers to briefs, man. Ah…what's the similarity?" Ashley asked him.

"Three bank employees gunned down in cold blood, and the robbers run into a vault with the cops on their heels, and apparently "disappear. " Will told Ashley and I.

"According to Will's report, the only possible means of escape was a nine-inch-square ventilation shaft; a scenario that didn't win you many points, if memory serves." Helen continued for him.

"No, but it gets weirder. The only thing that was stolen in that robbery was half a million dollars...in gold." He told us.

"Whoa."

"Do you think it's possible that Austin and our folding man are somehow connected?" Will asked us.

"At the very least it's a working theory." I told him closing my book.

* * *

Will was sitting at a desk working on his closed case as Helen, Ashley and I came in with the blood sample we'd taken.

"Looks like your cold case file may have given us our first positive lead. I analyzed trace blood from that bank vault. It didn't match any of the victims." Helen told him.

"Which means it must have come from one of the robbers." Ashley finished.

"Do you have a DNA match 'cause we could never find one?" Will told us.

"Nor did we; at least not to an individual who left it. But we did find someone right here in old city whose DNA matches 16 alleles out of the 20 that we looked at." I told him.

"That many genetic markers has got to be a close relative." Will said.

"Probably the Austin thief's father. He's a 71-year-old by the name of Oliver Braithwaite. His DNA was in the system from a suspect sweep a few years back." Helen told him.

"Do you have an address?" Will asked us.

"He's a drifter, he won't be sleeping in the same part of town every night." I told him.

"But he hangs out in my favorite part of town, the old Bryant Street Corridor." Ashley told him.

* * *

When we got to Bryant Street Corridor we separated to cover more ground, all of us asking the same question and receiving the same answer.

"Any luck?" Will asked us as we met back up. Ashley shook her head no and I sighed my defeat.

"Did you find anything?" Helen asked him.

"Oh, yeah, I got a great recipe for a rubbing alcohol martini." He told us sarcastically.

"They know the name. They just seem afraid to talk." I said looking around noticing a man come out of a corner looking like he was fixing his shoulder. Folding man.

"Stay close." Helen said walking over to where the man was and we followed her. An older man walked from another area to us as other folding men appeared.

"I believe you're looking for me?" He told us.

"Oliver Braithwaite?" Helen asked.

"Are you the police?" He asked us.

"No, absolutely not." Helen answered him.

"Then you really have no business being here." He informed us.

"My name is Magnus, Dr. Helen Magnus." She introduced herself. Every abnormal knew her name and what it meant.

"The Sanctuary?" He asked us and she nodded. Oliver then turned to the other men. "It's all right; leave us." and at his command they left. "I heard about the Sanctuary ever since I was a boy. A good place; where people like ours are treated like human beings."

"But you're not..." Will reminded him.

"We're better than human; we have the gift." Oliver told him.

"The gift of folding." I clarified.

"My days of folding are long gone." He informed us.

"We'd like to talk to you about your son." Helen told him.

"Aaron? Do you know where Aaron is?" He asked us and I grew confused.

"He's missing?" Ashley asked him.

"He's taken up with a madman. I can't contact him anymore." Oliver informed us.

"We're talking about a folder?" Will asked him.

"They call him Nomad. He's taken the best of our youth, ripped them from their homes, turned them against their families. Aaron was going to study medicine." Oliver told us.

"What's this Nomad's agenda?" Helen asked him.

"Well, he may be crazy, but he's also a criminal genius. He gets folders hooked on this addictive drug of his. He's got some hotshot drug chemist to make it locally. If I could find out where; I'd kill him myself." Oliver told us with hatred and anger in his eyes. I remembered those emotions well.

"We want to stop this Nomad too. Maybe we can help each other." Will told him.

"I just... Want my boy back, that's all." Oliver said.

"We'll do everything we can I promise you." Helen told him smiling at him. Oliver nodded to us and left.

"So, who would know about this high level of trafficking?" Will asked us.

"What about our high-flying friend Mr. Jones?" I asked Ashley.

"Worth a try." She told us.

"You're going to trust an addict as an informant?" Will asked us.

"Of course not; he's a crime boss controls most of the city's drug traffic." Ashley told him.

"And he'll only talk to Ashley." I told him.

* * *

After the others captured Malcolm we put him in a MRI to see the differences between him and the humans.

"I've sedated him. He'll be out for at least a couple of hours." Helen told us.

"You know, you pass him on the street; you have no idea what he's capable of." Will told us.

"Of course, you could say that about almost anyone." I told him. "But this is a reminder that he's not like anyone." I said looking at the MRI results.

"-Wow, the gaps in the bone." Ashley said as we all look at the image.

"Hinges crumple zones, if you will. Now, watch. I'll trigger a localized reflex." We watched as the rid cage began to squeeze together.

"Incredible." Will said watching.

"Efficiency of form; but at what price?" I asked looking back at the man.

"I'd better see about transferring this guy to a cell." Ashley said going to find a decent cell.

"One without vents." Helen reminded her.

* * *

"So, did his blood tell us what he's addicted to?" Will asked Helen as she came into the room. She had taken some of Malcom's blood to find out what drug he was on.

"Are you strapped in?" Helen asked him.

"I have been since I got here." He told her.

"I'm guessing it's nothing you ever heard of." She told him.

"I'm guessing its gold." he said looking at the papers on the table.

"TPG... Tertiary phosphene gold how did you know?" She asked him.

"I didn't. I just figured it had to explain their obsession with it." He said explaining his reason.

"So folding men steal gold and turn it into their own form of crack?" Ashley asked her.

"Gold's un-reactive to most chemicals, but it will bond to certain organic compounds. Now, this one's part of a whole new wave of metallotherapeutic pharmaceuticals." I told them looking at the computer in front of me. Helen gave me the blood results and I looked them over.

"So it's a medicine?" Will asked me.

"For Normals, yes, but for folding men; at least based on what I'v seen of Malcolm's DNA, it creates a virtually instant craving. It likely also dulls the pain of folding; acting like a sort of beta blocker. Without it, the pain would be beyond excruciating." I told him putting the paper down on top of the keyboard.

"Well, if Jones is right, two nights from now, Nomad floods the market with this Cheap, powerful TPG. It turns the whole society of folding men into his private criminal army." Will told us.

"If this quantity of designer drug is being made locally, it'll leave a trail...we'll look for that. Meantime, find out what you can from Malcolm." Helen ordered.

"Hey, what about the police?" Will asked us and I gave him a confused look. We've never nor will we ever involve the police.

"What about them?" Ashley asked.

"Well, I mean, this guy's an accessory to murder, maybe more..."

"And what would you have us tell them? That their man's addicted to gold and that he slithers like a python?" Helen asked interrupting him.

"That's a good point." Will said walking away.

* * *

After Will's first session with Malcolm he came and told us everything then decided to pace in front of us.

"It's pretty much what I expected." Helen told him.

"I can get him to talk, I just need more time." Will told us.

"There's an expression amongst creature hunters; if you could teach a lion English, you still wouldn't understand him." I told him, looking out the window.

"We're not talking about a wild animal here." Will told me and I turned to him.

"Oh, Will, that's exactly what we're talking about. Only this guy's way more intelligent than most." Ashley told him.

"And, as a consequence, more dangerous." Helen finished.

"I'm late." Ashley said getting up and grabbing her coat heading to the door.

"Going out?" Helen asked her.

"Yeah. I owe it to Mr. Jones to tell him what we've learned." She told us and Helen nodded to her.

"Stay safe." Helen said as she walked out the door. Will left soon after that and I continued to look out the windows.

"Is something wrong Liz?" Helen asked me getting off the couch and walking to me.

"Do you ever get the feeling like your being watched?" I asked her.

"Every once in a while, mostly when I'm with you though. Why? Have you seen someone out there?" She asked me looking out the window scanning the ground below us.

"I haven't seen anyone and almost everyone I know is here. Maybe it's old age finally getting to me." I joked with her.

"You still look the same as when we first met." She told me and I gave her a look." Whatever it was that was affecting me, I wouldn't let it stop me in what I was doing.

"I'm going to be going to the restaurant after this, would you like to join me this month?" I asked her. There was a restaurant I went to once a month in memory of a man I once loved. Helen normally joined me, but I asked her every time.

"I would be honored to." She told me smiling.

* * *

When Ashley came back she told us she and the Big Guy found Mr. Jones dead on the ground with clipped wings. She'd also brought back blood for us to test along with pictures.

"And there was a struggle with the knife; undoubtedly at the top of the building. The assailant left traces of his own blood." Helen told us.

"Did you run it for DNA?" Will asked us.

"No matches to an individual, but genetic markers indicate it was definitely the blood of a folding man." I told him.

"Retribution for the help that he provided us?" Will asked looking at the pictures of Mr. Jones.

"Not retribution, a power grab...control of the city's crime syndicate and hundreds of thousands in drugs and cash; just as Mr. Jones feared." Ashley told us.

"No doubt Nomad will use it to pay for his truckload of TPG. We've got less than nine hours. If we don't intercept that drug shipment and Nomad gets his way, the city had better brace itself for a major crime epidemic." I told them.

"I still think Malcolm knows more than he's telling us." Will told us.

"Has he ever talked about Oliver's son?" Helen asked him.

"Aaron? No, not yet. Why?" Will asked her.

"Well, based on his father's description, I think he might be a chink in Nomad's armor. Intelligent, close to his family...see what you can find out." Helen told him.

"All right." He said walking out to talk to Malcolm.

* * *

Will kicked down a door to an abandoned warehouse with furniture littering the area. Malcolm had told him about Aaron and where to find him.

"If Aaron was in that apartment; he must have moved everything out." Will told us.

"You think these might be his things?" I asked with my hand on my gun. I didn't want to be surprised this time.

"Maybe." Will said looking around the place.

"Or maybe Malcolm led us on a wild goose chase." Ashley said as she walked over to a washing machine. I was standing next to her when she opened it and inside was the body of a young boy. Aaron.

* * *

In the living area at the Sanctuary, Helen was sitting next to Oliver on the couch while Will and I sat in chairs across from them.

"I'm so sorry. When we promised you that we would find your son, I never imagined that it would be like this." Helen told him after we'd delivered the news of his sons death.

"I wanted Aaron... to be a doctor. I could imagine him working in a place like The Sanctuary. He...he was a smart boy. He was kind. What is there left for me? What's left for any of us?" He asked us and we held no answers for him.

* * *

Helen was sitting at her computer with Henry Ashley and I on each side of her. We were looking at Henry's research into the ingredients of the ingredients for TPG.

"When you broke it all down for me, the most basic recipe for TPG, no shortcuts, everything from scratch, the only local buyer is a small manufacturer just three miles north of the city." He told us.

"Aridan Labs." Helen said reading the screen.

"It's almost 4:00. Our chemist will be leaving for his rendezvous any time now." Ashley reminded her mother.

"Well, if we're right, he should lead us straight to Nomad." Helen said getting up and walking to a table. "I've come up with a chemical test for the TPG once we find it. It's about the only thing that will turn this liquid a brilliant blue." She said putting some in her pocket.

"What about Will?" I asked her.

"He wants one more run at Malcolm. I don't think we should take him away from it." She told us.

* * *

At Adrian Labs, a man was taking large containers from the dock and loading it into back of a van. Helen and I came up behind him and stops him with our guns to his chest.

"Sorry. No deliveries after hours." She told him. He tried to turn and run but he found Ashley instead.

"Hi."

"Do you mind telling us what's in those containers?" I asked him with a smile.

"Yeah, sure just don't shoot me. It's... Its laxatives." He told us and Helen just smiled at him.

"Sorry, I don't believe you." Helen told him going to his cargo and getting one of the items out of the containers and tested it. "It's not TPG." she told us.

* * *

A truck is pulling up a dock we'd tracked Will down to. The driver went to back up truck and started to unload. Ashley got behind him with her gun aimed at him.

"That looks like barrels of fun." She told him with a smile.

"Now Ash, be nice. He's just the messenger." I told her sarcastically from behind him, my gun trained on his back.

* * *

In the holding cell were all the folding men who'd lived through the encounter Helen had with Malcolm. Ashley, Will, Helen and I stood watch over them from day to day.

"Four to six weeks and most of our folding men can be returned to their homes; hopefully drug free." I told Helen as she walked up to us.

"Look, can you just say it, please? I mean, it's the elephant in the room. I let myself get conned." Will told us turning from the folding me to us.

"We all let ourselves get conned. Some of us just had a Plan B." Helen told him referring to the tracker on his car.

"Yeah, well, that's the last time I play by the old rules." He said turning back to the boy in the cell.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. We stopped the destruction of an entire culture of Abnormals. And you got to the bottom of one of your agency's biggest mysteries." I told him and he turned back to us.

"You're right. What am I talking about? I'm a hero." He told us sarcastically.

"Actually, on a scale from zero to hero, you're more like..." Ashley stopped and thought about it for a moment and that's when Helen intervened.

"Ashley..."

"…Almost respectable." We all smiled at each other and when Will turned around the three of us all gave each other a look.

* * *

I sat at my usual restaurant with a glass of red wine in front of me waiting for Helen when a man sat in her seat.

"Hello, Lizzy." He said smiling at me.

"So you've been the one watching me." I said taking a drink from my wine.

"Of course, I have to make sure you're still safe. You are my wife after all." He reminded me.

"I'm as safe as I can be at the Sanctuary." I told him. "What do you want?" I asked him and he just smiled at me.


	4. Kush

I was walking with a man through the small woods on my estate.

"How are you feeling? I know after the blood we injected we were hurting for a time." I said lowly making sure only he could hear me.

"I'm feeling much better. How about you? I know you suffered far more than the rest of us." he reminded me.

"Yes, well, with that much blood taken it took a little while for me to recuperate.." I told him.

"You never did answer the question." he told me smiling and I laughed.

"I'm doing much better, thank you. Helen and I have been working on getting the sanctuary up and running now." I told him.

"Could you show me your powers?" he asked, his eyes glowing with curiosity.

"I don't see why not." I told him. I glanced around to double check we were alone. I then held my hand out parallel to the ground. I felt the strength of the earth in my hand as I willed it to meet my hand. The land beneath my hand began to move, forming a pole with intricate designs etched in it.

"That's amazing." he told me.

"Thank you." I told him lowing the small pole I'd made and my hand. We continued walking in a comfortable silence back to the house. When we got back I invited him in and asked the housekeeper to get us some tea.

"You know, you don't have to be so kind to me." he told me as he sat on one of the chairs.

"I'm kind to you because I care about you, Nik." I told him, smiling lightly sitting beside him.

* * *

When I woke I looked around me to see debris surrounding me. I pushed the debris off me and started to look for Helen and Will.

"Helen! Will!" I called out.

"Will! Liz!" I heard Helen call out.

"Helen!" I followed her voice to find her digging under debris.

"Will is under here. Help me." I helped her dig Will out from the pile. "You all right?" she asked when we freed him.

"Yeah. That was... That was bad." Sylvio appeared from under some more debris near us.

"Oh, damn!"

"Sylvio! You okay?" I asked him.

"What do you think?" he asked me sarcastically.

"Where the hell are we?" Will asked as I helped him up. Helen stood also stood and wiped off a window and looked out.

"To be honest...no idea." She told us. Will and I were looking for survivors as Helen treated Slyvio.

"Allison!" I heard Will call out.

"Oh. Oh God!" she said as she moved around.

"Allison!" Will called once more.

"Are we, are we, are we..." she repeated over and over.

"It's okay, it's okay." Will said bending down to look at her.

"That thing!" she said freaking out.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Look, it's gone. It's gone, all right? Look at me. You're fine. You're fine, okay?" he told her trying comforting her.

"Yeah! That's very helpful. Tell her she's fine; even though we're totally screwed." a man called out as he moved debris off him. Helen moved to help him then he screamed in pain. "Ah!"

"Your arm!" I looked at them to see his shoulder had been dislocated and Helen tried to help him.

"Don't touch me. I'll do it." he told her. He looked at some crates behind him and hit his shoulder into them, popping his shoulder back in place. "See? All better." he told us. Helen looked to us and motioned that she was going to the cockpit. I nodded at her and she left to check the injuries.

"Let's try to keep the warmth in. Plug up the holes with whatever you can find." I instructed.

"Who the hell made you queen of the world?" the man asked me.

"I've been alive longer than all of you combined! Take your attitude and shove it! Now get up and help us plug that hole." I told him. We all got up and started putting whatever could be moved.

* * *

"I have good news. A rescue team will be here in about five hours. In the meantime, we'll assess your injuries and try to keep you all as warm as possible, and if the Gods are smiling, I'll find some tea and make us all a pot." Helen told us when she came back. The only assumption that could be made was that she got hold of Ashley.

"See? You'll be back in New Delhi by breakfast." Will told Allison.

"I should've guessed this would be no match for the great Helen Magnus." Allison said as they all got their coats on. I used my abilities to warm myself so that they could use what coats they needed.

"Exactly, never doubt the boss." Will told her.

"Liz! Magnus! Will!" I looked up at Sylvio as he motioned for us to join him at the back of the plane. We followed him and he showed us the cage that had been holding the creature we'd captured, damaged. "This is definitely after the punch line." I then remembered the some of the attack which had cause the crash.

"You think it survived the crash?" Will asked us.

"We did." I reminded him.

"I'm still getting paid, right? I mean I did fulfill the contract to find and capture one bad-ass snow creature. I mean what happens after that..." Sylvio told us making sure we understood that we were going to pay him.

"Give it a rest, all right?" Will told him.

"Start securing the plane. Continue doing what you can to block out the cold. Five hours is a long time to be exposed to these temperatures." Helen instructed us.

"I'll see what I can dig up." Sylvio told us leaving us alone.

"I know you two wanted this one badly." Will told us as I stared at the cage.

"Not like this." Helen told him.

"Well at least we know why no one's captured one before." I told them.

"Yeah and here we are, stuck on its turf. I'm not sure I like not knowing whether that thing is alive or dead." Will told us.

"It's not just this creatures turf. It's also mine." I told him. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and saw his eyes widen slightly. My eyes must have bled over to their true color. A noise was heard behind us and Helen and I pulled out our guns and aimed it from the direction of the noise. Will removed debris and found a man. Alarmed the man quickly spook in a foreign language to us.

"Can you understand him?" Will asked us.

"It's a dialect of Tibetan." Helen told us.

"Wasn't he one of the Sherpa on the expedition?" I asked recognizing them.

"Yes, he must have stowed away on the flight." Helen said thinking of the only possible situation.

"Bad move." Will commented to him, even if he couldn't understand us.

"Your name is Tashi, right?" Helen asked him and he nodded. So he could understand us. "Can you stand?" he stood up with help from Helen. "It's all right. You're safe. The thing is gone. Let me see your hand." We then heard raised voices from the other portion of the plane. "Look after him." Helen instructed Will as she and I moved to the forward section of the plane to see the man who'd put his arm back in its socket in Sylvio's face.

"I think you are! I mean, we have a right to an explanation! What the hell was that thing? How did it get in this plane, man?" he asked as Helen and I came into view.

"It was our cargo. A rare species of snow leopard captured in Tajikistan, north of Dushanbe." Helen told him.

"Never heard of a snow leopard attacking a group of people before." another man who'd been sitting behind Allison told us.

"It was a rare offshoot of the species." I told him.

"Its designation is Cryptid Bipedis Himalaya." she stuttered out.

"You expect us to believe that that was a leopard? That was four times the size of any cat." the first man said.

"Whatever it was, it brought the plane down. Who are you people?" The pilot asked us.

"We're with a private research foundation." Will said from behind me.

"The creature we brought back was unique, and I deeply regret what happened. Our intention was to transport it to our facility in New Delhi run by Dr. Grant here. I have many such Sanctuaries around the world. New Delhi was the closest, and with such dangerous cargo..." Helen tried explaining to the crew around us but never got the chance to finish.

"Yeah, well, hooray for you and your safety protocols, because they worked like a charm, right?" the first man said sarcastically.

"We didn't mean for this to happen. - We took every precaution possible." Will told him.

"Really? 'Cause he's dead! We're stranded here, and your cargo gone. Or is it?" the man asked us. I was thankful that I'd been able to control my anger years ago or everyone might have been endangered.

"We don't know." I told him.

"What does that mean?" the pilot asked us.

"That means we could be attacked at any time..." the first man started saying but Helen interrupted him.

"That is extremely unlikely. These creatures are incredibly shy and used to their natural habitat. If it did survive, it would have sought refuge higher up the mountain." she told him.

"Shy? That creature, whatever the hell it was, almost killed every one of us! And who the hell is he?" the first man asked pointing behind me. I glanced to see Tashi had come with Will into the main area.

"A stowaway; a Sherpa who helped us capture the creature." Will told them.

"Oh really? Well, good for you! How about you go out there and do it again! - This time make sure it's dead!" the first man told him.

"Hey!" Sylvio drew our attention to him. "You obviously have a problem knowing when to shut up, man." Tashi then started to speak to us but none of us could understand him sadly.

"He wanted to come back with us. He has family in Peshawar he hasn't seen in years."

"Why not just ask for a lift?" I asked him. Allison translated my question and Tashi answered looking between the two of us.

"He was afraid that you would refuse him and he's very sorry that he deceived you, and he asks for your forgiveness." I smiled and nodded my head to him.

"Well, you certainly picked the wrong flight. Alright even though rescue will be here soon, we still need to keep warm. It will help us with the shock of what we've just endured. Everyone, find some tools and help seal up the plane." Helen told them.

"Yes, ma'am." the first man said sarcastically as we started to seal up the plane once more. We used everything we could; tape, luggage and anything else that wasn't bolted down.

* * *

I joined Helen and Will in a small area where Will was pouring himself some sort of hot liquid.

"Oh, please tell me that that is tea." Helen told him.

"I second that." I said walking up to the counter.

"Gods are on vacation. It's coffee. Here." he said handing her a cup.

"Pass." she told him.

"Come on, it'll help you keep warm." Will told her.

"I have standards, Will. Drinking coffee? Well below them." she told him. He offered me the cup and I shook my head at him.

"Man, you are a Brit to the core, aren't you?" Will asked us.

"And proud of it." She told him.

"So, I've taken stock of things. We don't have a lot of food left, maybe a day or so, and the heater fuel is not going to last much longer either." he told us.

"All right, we'll ration everything very carefully. This could be home for a long while." I told him.

"Yeah, well you never know. This place, a little redecorating... Probably still feel like a doomed hellhole." Will told us sarcastically.

"Is that your way of saying any port in the storm?" I asked him.

"No, it's my way of coping with the fact that this is the world's worst cup of coffee." He told us and I laughed.

"Rule Britannia."

* * *

We all slept peacefully that night in the cold plane doing all we could for warmth. I'd used my abilities while awake but at night I only had my dreams.

"My love. Why are you so worried about us?" he asked me all those years ago.

"The blood..." I woke suddenly and sprung forward in my makeshift bed before leaning back again. I relaxed before I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"We have a situation." Helen told me.

* * *

Later that night we were all gathered around Strickland's body. He had an injury on his arm and a small pool of blood under him. Braun and Allison were standing behind us as Will, Helen and I were kneeling close to him.

"Magnus, what's happening?" Allison asked her.

"The co-pilot appears to have committed suicide." Helen told her as I held his arm in my gloved hand looking over the injury.

"This is crazy. Why would we he do that?" Braun asked her.

"Just give us some space." She ordered both he and Allison.

"Come on." Allison told Braun.

"Yeah" I heard them both leave leaving us to do our jobs.

"Looks like he used a broken piece of glass; why would he just give up like this? Yeah, I know the rescue is delayed, but still." Will commented as I put down the arm. Helen removed a bottle of alcohol from Strickland's pocket.

"Hardly in keeping with aviation regulations, plus he abandoned his post when the creature attacked. Who knows what other skeletons he had in his closet?" she said putting the bottle down.

"What if it wasn't a suicide?" I asked posing the idea.

"No sign of a struggle. No screams, cries for help, any of which would have woken us up." Helen reminded me.

"Unless he knew his attacker. You said Strickland felt people were angry at him for not helping fly the plane when the creature attacked. What if he was right?" Will asked her.

"Mad enough to kill, with all of us here and absolutely no place to hide; a bit of a stretch." she told Will.

"Sorry, but you pay me for my outlandish theories." Will told her as Allison came through the doorway with Braun behind her. She knelt down to talk with Tashi and Braun stared at us. I noticed Helen look away from him before looking back. She then stood up and walked away from all of us. I stood and followed after her.

"What's wrong?" I asked Helen as soon as we were secluded enough to talk in private.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." She lied smiling at me.

"I've known you far too long to believe that." I told her. She sighed and looked at me as though trying to find the right words to say.

"I keep seeing John as we was when we'd been engaged." she told me. I looked down thinking of the memories that have been plaguing me during this crash..

"You're not the only one with memories coming back to you. But I have to say, I haven't seen my memory while I was awake while we've been here." I told her thinking of my recent dreams and her reaction to Braun earlier.

"Do you think this is happening to everyone on the plane? Memories coming back to haunt us?" she asked me.

"Unless everyone just blurts out that their memories are coming to life we won't know that." I told her as Allison and Will passed us with Strickland's body wrapped up in a blanket.

* * *

I had managed to fall asleep again without any dreams only to wake with Helen shaking me awake.

"Wake Will." she told me going to another part of the plane as I walked to Will.

"Come on. Something's going on." I told him when I managed to wake him. I followed the voices of Braun and Sylvio until we could see them clearly.

"What the hell was that thing." I heard Braun ask.

"...To take us all out in our sleep?" I walked into the small area with Will behind me in time to see Sylvio with his arm against Braun's throat holding him against the wall of the plane.

"You tell me." Braun told him.

"What's going on here?" Helen asked.

"Seems Tashi caught Mr. Sneaky mechanic here trying to steal some of our hardware; one of my best sellers." Sylvio handed Helen a gun and she examined it. "Gonna shoot a weapons dealer with his own gun? You can see how the irony is lost on me!"

"It was for protection, all right? You don't think I see that you're all packing weapons? I'm just trying to level the playing field here people." Braun told us.

"It's not even loaded. Sylvio let him go. Mr. Braun, these cases are our property, and I'll thank you to remember that even under these trying circumstances, and the weapons we carry are for everyone's protection." Helen told him putting the gun down.

"Then give me a gun." Braun told her.

"That is definitely not happening." Sylvio told him.

"So I'm supposed to sit here and let one of you kill me in my sleep? No, I don't think so. I'm not going down without a fight." Braun told us. Tashi then began to speak to us but Braun didn't wait for Allison to translate what he said before speaking himself. "Someone shut him up?"

"Or I could start with you." I said putting my hand on my gun. The plane was silent for a moment before Helen out her hand on my arm. With the fire ability keeping me warm my anger that came with the element was sitting right under my skin.

"Everyone, get some sleep." Helen told us pulling me away. Everyone moved behind us then tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

Later that night Helen, will and I were kneeling over Sylvio's body as the others stood away from us.

"We've lost a valuable member of our team." Helen said.

"Severe abdominal laceration and he had to have been killed here. There'd be a mess if he were moved afterward." I told them looking him over.

"There are no other injuries of any kind. No defensive wounds." Helen said standing up.

"No, it's like he just let somebody stab him." Will said as I stood up.

"What is wrong with you people? We know who killed him. I mean, come on, look! Look. Look! No! Look!" Braun tried going after Tashi but Will stopped him and pushed him back.

"Mr. Braun." Helen said drawing his attention to her.

"Calm down." Will told him.

"He did it, and I can prove it." Braun said pointing at Tashi.

"Really? How?" I asked him.

"Around his neck, look. I've seen other Sherpas with that, the ones that believe that the yeti is some kind of god." Braun told us drawing our attention to Tashi's necklace.

"The Order of Pangboche, a group of Tibetan mystics who worship the creature as a protector of the mountains." Helen told us after looking at it for a while.

"So now we know who let the damn thing loose in the first place. What more reason would he need to kill us all? We tried to steal his people's damn sacred cow." Braun said and quickly Tashi started speaking to us.

"Hold on. What is he saying?" Will asked and we all turned to Allison.

"He says the medallion was a gift from his cousin, that he doesn't worship the creature, and why would he help to capture something only to free it again?" She asked for him.

"Revenge, to teach us a lesson so we don't try and hunt it again..." Braun suggested to us.

"Hold on, hold on. Now, Tashi claims that he's not part of the Pangboche Order, correct? And, I'm sorry, but having a medallion is hardly proof of intent to kill." I told Braun.

"Liz's right. We can't condemn a man because of his beliefs. Leave him alone." Helen ordered him.

"Oh, I get it." Braun said looking at all of us.

"Braun..." Will tried speaking but Braun interrupted him.

"I get it. You had Sherpa boy kill Strickland, and then you had him murder the weapons guy. Why, because you owed him money? So you take me out, and there you go, no more witnesses to your little massacre. Wow." Braun speculated.

"You're being completely irrational. There are still far too many unanswered questions." Helen told him.

"No, no, no, see, I will not go quietly. No, no. Go ahead and try, but I'll fight you. Gees, you're nuts." Braun told us walking away.

"I'll go keep an eye on him." Allison told us.

"Take Tashi with you." Helen told her and they both left the three of us.

"All right, what the hell...what the hell is going on here? Why would somebody go on a killing spree in a stranded plane?" Will asked us.

"They wouldn't. Come here." Helen led us to the back of the plane where we had Strickland's body.

"I need to ask you something, and it may sound strange." Helen told us.

"Oh believe me; I'm getting very used to strange." Will told her.

"Have you had any dreams, hallucinations; incredibly vivid, too real to ignore?" Helen asked us.

"People who couldn't possibly be there…" Will said going back into his memories.

"…And yet you can feel their presence, yes." I answered.

"It's tricks of the mind; post-traumatic stress, plus the elevation and exhaustion." Will told us.

"I thought so too at first, but now I'm beginning to have my doubts." Helen told us.

"Why do you say that?" I asked her. She uncovered Strickland's body and knelt down to it.

"Describe his wounds." she told us.

"Ah, a deep cross-length laceration." Will told her motioning across his wrist.

"I don't see that. I see multiple lacerations across his arm.

"Interesting, I see a diagonal laceration from palm to forearm." she told us.

"What? Well, how is that possible? One of us has to be right." Will told us.

"Or we're all wrong. Something is affecting our minds, clouding our judgment." I told him jumping on Helen's thought.

"What do you mean, like mind control? But there's nobody on this plane who could... The creature... You think it's among us?" he asked us.

"And hiding in plain sight using this telepathic power to conceal itself." Helen told him.

"What, by making itself invisible?" Will asked again.

"Or by posing as one of us, it can make us see things that aren't even real." Helen told us.

"But why would it hang around? I mean this is its terrain." Will reminded us.

"Well maybe it marked this as its hunting ground. It sees us as a threat. Abnormals aren't like humans. We don't play by the same rules that you understand. But clearly it's having an effect on us. We can't trust anything that we see or hear or even feel." I told them.

"But there's got to be some way of knowing who we can trust. Wait. If its natural habitat is sub-arctic temperatures, then it would have to have a pretty special physiology, right? Even for an abnormal." Will suggested to us.

* * *

Allison drew everyone's blood for us. Once she was done she walked to Helen and I and gave us the blood. Helen had everyone's blood on a tray.

"How will this show us anything? We don't have any equipment. We can't do a proper analysis." Allison said and Helen smiled at her while handing me the tray.

"On the contrary, we have exactly what we need. This creature thrives in high altitudes and extremely low temperatures. It would have to have some sort of protective protein or antibody in its blood; otherwise it would never be able to survive the harsh conditions. Now, normal blood will freeze in temperatures this low in minutes. My thought is that the creature's won't." Helen told Allison as I placed the blood outside.

"How can one of us be...?"Allison started asked but couldn't finish.

"It's just a theory, Allison, hopefully one we can rule out." I told her. "10 minutes should be enough time." I told both of them.

"I'm sorry. This situation is just... - I'm trying to stay calm." Allison told us.

"We all are. Believe me; We've been in far worse situations than this." Helen told her.

"You have?" Allison asked looking at the two of us.

"Absolutely, there was a town of zombies in Uganda, and of course I ran out of ammunition just as night fell. A deep sea capsule I was in was trapped underneath a gigantic mutated squid, and there was an escaped lunatic who was able to turn himself into a giant ape." Helen told her.

"Thanks. You just made all that up, didn't you?" Allison asked her.

"Only two of them; my point is, you just have to keep trying, no matter what and that's how we'll stay alive." I told her.

* * *

10 minutes later I pulled the continiers back inside as Will and Helen moved toward me. We examined the blood and saw one was not frozen. I wiped the ice off the name so we'd know who was our creature.

"Braun." Will read.

"I see the same thing." Helen told him as I nodded to them both. Helen drew her gun and cocked it. She pointed it towards Braun and moved forward.

"No. No. No." Braun told us.

"Just stay calm." Will told him.

"It isn't me. - It isn't me..." Braun told us standing up.

"Just calm down." Will told him again.

"I'm not the creature." Braun told us again. We moved back and I opened the door to a large safe.

"Just until the rescue arrives." I told him.

"No you don't have to do this. I'm not a monster, all right? I've been seeing things, yes, okay? I've been seeing things that I can't explain. But that does not make me a monster. Please!" Braun begged us.

"This is for your own safety as well as ours." Will told him.

"No, no, no." Braun begged as he got into the safe.

"Mr. Braun, please, we really have no choice." Helen told him.

"I can't do small spaces. Please. Please... Please." Braun begged and Allison gave him a light before I shut the door.

"Oh no,no,no,no. No! No! Don't! Please, don't. Please... I'm not the monster. Please, I'm not the monster, please!" Braun begged us. "I'm not good in... I'm not good in small spaces. Oh, please... I'm human. I'm human like you. Please. Oh, please, help. I'm not a monster." The others looked distressed at locking him in the safe while I felt nothing.

* * *

Later the night we awoke to Tashi screaming out. We all rushed to see what the problem was and to see if we could help him.

"Oh, my God!" Allison said as we inspected the scene. The door to the safe was open and Braun was dead.

"Did he see anything?" I asked Allison.

"No, he says he felt like something overcame him and made him feel like he was in a dream, even though he swears he was awake the whole time." She translated for us.

"But he was right in front of the compartment. Did he hear anything? Did Braun call for help?" Will asked her.

"He was back in his village. He was at a celebration. He was dancing at his wedding with his wife. And then he felt like he was possessed by something evil." Allison translated for us.

"All right, Tashi, come with us." Helen said and we all left the area except Will. I grabbed the tray of blood and put it outside again to try and make sense of all of it.

* * *

10 minutes later I brought in the blood again and went back to Helen and Will with the tray of blood.

"Just to clarify, you're not seeing a monster, right?" Will asked as I walked in.

"Are you?" I asked him.

"I wish I was. How does the guy we id as the creature turn out to be its next victim?" Will asked us.

"Because he's human; I've just run the test again." I told them showing them the blood

"But we all saw it before. It wasn't frozen." he reminded us.

"No we saw what the creature wanted us to see, in order to throw us off the scent. I should have anticipated something like this. The legends about the creature; some call it a skinwalker. Others say it eats your soul. Add the fact no one's ever caught one before and I should have realized the initial capture went down too easily." I told them looking at Braun's body.

"Tashi said that he was at his wedding, dancing with his wife. With each kill, it's like we enter this vivid dream-like state that distracts us from the events." Will said looking at the two of us.

"It knows exactly what to show us in order to completely divert our focus." Helen said.

"But why, why is it just hanging around, picking us off one by one?" Will asked us.

"Maybe it has no choice." I suggested.

"It has to be here to survive, too." Will said. The three of us moved back to the creature's cage passing Tashi and Allison on the way.

"What do you see?" Helen asked us.

"Ah, I see a door off its hinges." Will told her.

"Touch it." she told him. Will grabbed the door to the cage and moved it then touched a jagged hole.

"Now, try to see what's really there." I told him.

"I see a lock." Will told us. I looked at Helen and shook my head at her.

"We don't." Helen told him. Will closed his eyes briefly to concentrate and then took another look.

"There's no lock. There's no damage. The door was open the entire time." Will said looking around.

"The less we use our eyes..." I started for him to finish.

"The more we see. Okay, okay, so, what are we not looking for, then?" Will asked us and we looked inside.

"There." I said pointing my flashlight the the grooves inside the cage and the scratches.

"These couldn't have been made by the creature we believe we saw. It barely had enough room to move in, and its claws were four times this size." Helen told us.

"And don't cold weather mammals molt under stress?" Will asked us and I moved my light around more looking for hair.

"There's no sign of any fur in here." I said.

"So there never was a 400-pound yeti." Will said.

"No. These scratches were made by something much smaller, almost human sized. It just made us think we were dealing with something far more intimidating, likely whatever our subconscious dictated it would be." Helen told us.

"That must be how it keep predators away, make them think its something far worse than what it is.

"Okay, so if what we saw before was just a Jedi mind trick, what the hell does this damn thing look like?" Will asked us.

"I have no idea, but it's a good bet that it's as vulnerable to the cold as we are, hence its need to blend in among us in order to survive." Helen told him.

"Magnus... Liz... - how do I know that..." Will broke off.

"We're us?" she asked him.

"Yeah."

"You don't. Nor am I certain that the two of you are who you appear to be. The creature could be any one of us." Helen told him.

"I keep thinking there must be some way of telling, you know; a way of knowing if the person's really them." Will told us.

"For the moment we'll just have to rely on the little things." I told them.

"Like the fact that the real you wouldn't insult me by giving me false hope." he said looking at the two of us.

"Or the fact you keep offering us that horrible brown sludge to drink." Helen said.

"You know, I don't know much about you to really know who you are." Will told me and I smiled.

"For the most part let's keep it that way." I told him. "For now know that I'm married but my husband and I don't really talk anymore let alone see each other and just like Helen I hate coffee." Helen smiled at me, knowing I never liked to talk about my past, then looked back at Allison and Tashi.

"You know, that thing's never attacked two of us at once, which means it's only powerful enough to handle one of us at a time." Will told us.

"So alone, we're vulnerable." Helen said.

"We stay close, we live." I told them.

* * *

"I'll take first watch." Helen told us as we all slept closer that night.

"All right, this is the last gas canister. It's going to get cold tonight." Will said putting the canister down on a chair close to us and sitting beside Helen.

* * *

"Did you ever love me? I mean, truly love me? You know I'm just an element of your subconscious mind, so feel free to be honest with me." I woke to find Nik beside me.

"When I first knew you at Oxford, I loved everything about you Nik. Even after you changed, I loved you more than I ever thought possible for someone like me." I told him.

"Those were the best times, then we got married and I screwed it up." he said smiling at me softly.

"You tried to kill me and my best friend, Nik. My blood turning you into what you are and so everything was my fault not yours." I told him looking away from him to look towards Helen, Will, Tashi and Allison.

"Let me make it up to you. I need you to wake up." he told me kissing me deeply. I woke suddenly and looked around quickly. When I looked around Will was standing up next to Helen.

"I'd prefer coffee." Helen told him.

"Of course." Will told her signaling he was the creature. Helen and I raised our guns and without hesitation shot the creature in Will's form. The creature collapsed and Will ran into the plane from outside.

"You guys finally got one, the first capture ever." Will said.

"Hell of a cost." Helen told him.

"That's beyond ugly." Will told us looking at the creature. He sat down beside Helen and I sat where Allison had been.

"How did you know it wasn't me?" Will asked us.

"Like I said, it's the little things." Helen told him.

"The less we use our eyes..." Will said dropping off.

"Welcome to reality." I told him.

"I'm happy to be here." He told me and we all smiled.


End file.
